Hettys Strange History | Page 8

chair now, Nan, because I want you
to be quiet and listen to me. But that will be my chair to sit in always,
just as it used to be my father's; and I shall not die before the year 's out,
Nan, nor I hope for a great many years to come yet," said Hetty.
"Oh, no! please the Lord, Miss Hetty," sobbed Nan: "who'd take care of
Cæsar an' me ef you was to die."
"But I expect you and Cæsar to take care of me, Nan," replied Hetty,
smiling, "and I want to have a good talk with you now, and make you
understand about our life here. You want to please me, don't you,

Nan?"
"Oh, yes! Miss Hetty. You knows I do, and so does Cæsar. We
wouldn't have no other missus, not in all these Norf States: we'd sooner
go back down where we was raised." Hetty smiled involuntarily at this
violent comparison, knowing well that both Cæsar and Nan would have
died sooner than go back to the land where they were "raised." But she
went on,--
"Very well. You never need have any other mistress as long as I live:
and when I die you and Cæsar will have money enough to make you
comfortable, and a nice little house. Now the first thing I want you to
understand is that we are going to live on here in this house, exactly as
we did when my father was here. I shall carry on the farm exactly as he
would if he were alive; that is, as nearly as I can. Now you will make it
very hard for me, if you cry and are lonesome, and say such things as
you said to-night. If you want to please me, you will go right on with
your work cheerfully, and behave just as if your master were sitting
there in his chair all the time. That is what will please him best, too, if
he is looking on, as I don't doubt he very often will be."
"But is you goin' to be here all alone, Miss Hetty? yer don't know what
yer a layin' out for, yer don't," interrupted Nan.
"No," replied Hetty: "Mr. James Little and his wife are coming here to
stay. He will be overseer of the farm."
"What! Her that was Sally Newhall?" exclaimed Nan, in a sharp tone.
"Yes, that was Mrs. Little's name before she was married," replied
Hetty, looking Nan full in the face with a steady expression, intended to
restrain any farther remarks on the subject of Mrs. Little. But Nan was
not to be restrained.
"Before she was married! Yes'm! an' a good deal too late 'twas she was
married too. 'Deed, Miss Hetty, yer ain't never going to take her in to
live with you, be yer?" she muttered.

"Yes, I am, Nan," Hetty said firmly; "and you must never let such a
word as that pass your lips again. You will displease me very much if
you do not treat Mrs. Little respectfully."
"But, Miss Hetty," persisted Nan. "Yer don't know"--
"Yes, I do, Nan: I know it all. But I pity them both very much. We have
all done wrong in one way or another; and it is the Lord's business to
punish people, not ours. You 've often told me, Nan, about that pretty
little girl of yours and Cæsar's that died when I was a baby. Supposing
she had lived to be a woman, and some one had led her to do just as
wrong as poor Sally Little did, wouldn't you have thought it very hard
if the whole world had turned against her, and never given her a fair
chance again to show that she was sorry and meant to live a good life?"
Nan was softened.
"'Deed would I, Miss Hetty. But that don't make me feel like seein' that
gal a settin' down to table with you, Miss Hetty, now I tell yer! Cæsar
nor me couldn't stand that nohow!"
"Yes you can, Nan; and you will, when you know that it would make
me very unhappy to have you be unkind to her," answered Hetty, firmly.
"She and her husband both, have done all in their power to atone for
their wrong; and nobody has ever said a word against Mrs. Little since
her marriage; and one thing I want distinctly understood, Nan, by every
one on this place,--any disrespectful word or look towards Mr. or Mrs.
Little will be just the same as if it were towards me myself."
Nan was silenced, but her face wore an obstinate expression which
gave Hetty some misgivings as to the success of her experiment.
However, she knew that Nan could be trusted to repeat to the